I am already fairly well versed in ancient Greek, and I am planning to start learning Latin soon. What is the best place to start? I know that Textkit has at least a couple of options for beginning Latin grammars, so what are some preferences from forum users?

I didn't want to waste time, refe, so I took hold of Allen & Greenough's grammar and I have never put it down.Tempus, refe, decoquere nolui, proinde illam grammaticam de Allen et Greenough cepi, nunquàm posthac deposui.

I usually try to use free books online at GoogleBooks whenever possible (you can get Allen & Greenough at GoogleBooks, along with other standard Latin grammars), but I haven't found anything as good as Woodcock at GoogleBooks for actual syntax and usage; it is super-useful.

I'm not a Latin professional, but I'm still sure that I would not begin with either A&G's New Latin Grammar or E. C. Woodcock's New Latin Syntax to start. I have a copy of A&G's grammar, and it is fine (actually even more than fine, rather a necessary adjunct. So, by all means do download it). And I'm sure that Mr. Woodcock's New Latin Syntax is very good, too. However, these are grammars, not text books (A&G's certainly isn't, and as far I can tell from the information on Amazon about Woodcock, that one isn't either).

For the beginning, you need a text book. On Archive.org you can find tons of those dating from the 19th century for free download. However, it might be best to choose one which ensures maximum support. As you can see from the Board Index, Textkit (users) favour (or at least concentrate on) two text books:

"Wheelock's Latin"

"Latin for Beginners" by Benjamin D'Ooge

Personally, I used Wheelock's Latin (and later on added Bellum Helveticum by Janes & Jenks), but it does have its faults. The learning curve is steeper than that of Latin for Beginners - not so much as far as grammar but rather as far as the difficulty of the sample sentences and the pieces of continuous text is concerned. Its samples do, however, stick closer to the original authors (which is where the difficulty comes from). If you're comfortable with that, then have a look at it. Otherwise, have a look at the book by Mr. D'Ooge which you can download from Texkit (and the Key to it as well, which is always good when you are learning on your own).

There's also H. Orberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata which is a Latin-only approach, but considering your background (Ancient Greek! Kudos to you!) that probably isn't the right one for you.

However, whichever textbook you are going to use, start reading Latin as soon as possible. That's a major problem that most textbooks have: too little continuous text. As a remedy I made a list of some easy Latin texts. And by all means have a look at Laura Gibbs' web-site.

The free audio-course Latinum created by Evan Millner is recommendable, as well. Even if you do not choose to follow the main course (based on Mr. Adler's "Practical Grammar", which is by the way a textbook not a grammar), there are heaps of audio files to listen to.

Thanks everybody, there is a lot of helpful stuff packed into your answers. I will probably start with the two free textbooks offered here and move on from that point. And Corolus, I appreciate the link to easy Latin texts. When learning Greek I tried to spend at least as much time reading actual Greek texts as I spent in my textbooks, and that is exactly what I would like to do with Latin as well.

Carolus Raeticus wrote:There's also H. Orberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata which is a Latin-only approach, but considering your background (Ancient Greek! Kudos to you!) that probably isn't the right one for you.

On the contrary, I think you could make good progress in Lingua Latina, given your knowledge of Greek. LL is most difficult for those who are new to highly inflected languages like Greek and Latin. Knowing what you know, you'll be able to make the leap with less difficulty. You'll pick up the noun declensions, verbal changes, etc.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't use a standard textbook (I used LL after Wheelock), but LL will give you reading competency more than any other course.

For what it's worth, I took Koine Greek before I ever started with Latin, and I'm only using LL, and I love it a lot. My prof for Greek added in a lot of readings (we used Mounce) and that was really what saved me. It depends on how you learn best- LL teaches by reading first, doing exercises second, and Wheelock (which I also own but have never used- it just feels horribly boring to me) does exercises first and reading second. The reading is my favorite part, and what keeps me excited and coming back- I feel like I've actually accomplished something- so I like LL better.

You aren't the first to ask this question by any means- search this forum for a few related phrases and you'll come up with other people's opinions as well.

I first studied Greek using Mounce and while I loved getting into the reading right away, I have always wished that he had spent more time building a stronger foundation in the language first. Now that I am about to embark on another ancient language I'm really not sure which route (deductive/inductive) I want to take. I will just have to check out both options, I suppose.

Amazon's "Look Inside" feature is great for that. And if a book allows you to search, you can search for a common word and get an even better look at the contents.

If you do go with LL, I really do suggest getting the College Companion as well, it explains the grammar as you go along, in English. While LL does explain the big pieces of grammar (in Latin, but it's still not bad to figure out) he sometimes introduces new little pieces of it without a thorough enough example. (Using the accusative instead of the ablative with the prep. "in" when it's movement into a place rather than stating where something happened, that was one example of a time I was glad to have the CC.)

Besides the resources mentioned already, I encourage you to speak Latin and write Latin sentences as much as possible, and read Latin that interests you. Given your interest in the Greek New Testament, I would suggest you read the Vulgate along with the Greek NT. The United Bible Societies have a printed (hardcopy) Greek-Latin NT, which I use often. The Vulgate is also available online and in several Bible software programs, including freeware ones. By all means try a little conversational Latin, even if only to yourself. (I can point you to some sources if you're interested.)

As you read, it helps to listen to the audio (I use the NT audio from http://www.greeklatinaudio.com) and read aloud. Also it helps to learn passages by heart.

Writing sentences helps too. You can try your hand at writing Latin to communicate here at Textkit in the Agora and Composition Boards (see Composition, Discussion, and Debate in the Forum Board Index at the bottom of the page). The Schola site also encourages this. And, you can write me in Latin too.

There are several sites and some free software with helps for composition. (If interested let me know and I'll point you to some.) I would encourage trying it from the very beginning. If your textbook has any English to Latin exercises, by all means do them.

After I finished high-school (I studied Latin and Ancient Greek five hours a day in school so believe me, I know what I am talking about), I realized I felt empty when it came to the two tongues. So I decided to refresh my memory, re-teaching myself both. I reccomend Wheelock's as a reference grammar (despite what other people might say, it just doesn't work as a textbook). You have to pick the book that suits you best. This might help you (it mentions less renown books, along with the mainstream ones); http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/impor ... guages.pdf. I for one used "Reading Latin". It isn't too expensive (it isn't cheap either, though) and it really works (it might be a little complex at first, but apparently you know some Koinè Greek. It isn't as tough as Classical Greek, but still, it's better than nothing). Plus, there is a follow-up volume called "Reading Medieval Latin" that'll allow you to master Late Latin along with Classical Latin (most people are lost when it comes to translating the works of most medieval poets and historians!). Have fun learning Latin.

P.S. learn Attic Greek too. It's worth it.

Last edited by Ovidius on Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have to agree. Wheelock has its supporters, but I am not one of them. On the other hand I have used D'Ooge's book to great effect and Lingua Latina and the associated texts are great, although I've only used them as supplementary material, not as my primary text. (I like the rules explicitly expressed.)